Discussion Guide for Noah, the movie starring Russell Crowe

Love it or hate it, Darren Aronofsky's movie Noah will start people talking. If you are planning on seeing Noah, why not go with some friends and get together after to discuss it. Talking to others will enrich your experience.
To get some ideas, check out the . . .


Noah Discussion Guide
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“As far as blockbusters films go, Noah is about as big as they come,” said ABC News.

“If you liked Braveheart, Gladiator, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones or Titanic, you will like Noah. If you liked two or more of the above, you will love Noah,” Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker said.

The story of Noah in the Bible is only four chapters long, and the Bible doesn’t record anything Noah said before the Flood. God does all the talking.

The only things we’re told about Noah are that he “found grace in the eyes of the Lord,” “did according to all that God commanded him,” “by faith . . . obeyed God and built a boat,” “drank of the wine and was drunk,” and pronounced a curse on Canaan, his grandson.

There’s not a lot of detail in the Bible for a 139-minute movie. Make no mistake. Everyone who tells the Noah story has to insert detail. Noah: The Real Story explains how Noah might have fed the animals, how the ark could have been designed, what Noah might have done with the estimated 12 tons of animal waste a day, and more. But the fact is, we don’t know. We’re inserting details into the story that are a best guess.

Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel, “two not very religious Jewish guys,” also inserted details into the Noah story—different details—that are their best guesses.

One of the most fascinating medieval Bibles, the Morgan Crusader Bible created about 1250 AD, consisted of only pictures illustrating events from Creation to King David. The battle scenes are filled with medieval knights, chain mail, horses, banners, and catapults. Bible events are pictured as if they took place in the 13th century.

Bible scholars have figured out very little for sure about the “sons of God,” “daughters of men,” and “giants” (Nephilim in Hebrew) mentioned in the first four verses of Genesis 6. The Nephilim don’t usually show up in Bible story books. In Noah the Nephilim, called “Watchers,” are shown as 11-foot-tall angesl with six arms and no wings. If that sounds like they are right out of a graphic novel, they are. These giants are pictured on the front of one written by Aronofsky and Handel and published in 2011 in French—today’s version of putting David’s warriors in chain mail with a mace and a catapult.

Noah is a terrific adventure. The stars are great. The special effects and digital creations are amazing. It’s worth watching.

But biblically accurate? Don’t count on it if you want to see a film that follows the story in the Bible without embellishment. Paramount’s Noah is a tale inspired by the story in the Bible. Whenever you add chain mail or scenes not in Scripture to a Bible story, you may help people understand the original story better; but you also run the risk of getting it wrong.

However, in a world where the Bible is too often ignored or misunderstood, the film Noah offers a great opportunity to talk about Noah: The Real Story. That’s why the best way to experience Noah is to see it with some friends and talk about it afterwards.

These questions will help you get started. Choose a dozen of those below to get your group talking. And be sure to check out Noah: The Real Story.


1. What parts of the movie did you like the best? Why?

2. Which of the special effects did you like the best? Why?

3. What parts of the movie made you feel the most uncomfortable? Why? Perhaps it was because the movie took too many liberties with the story in the Bible.

4. What do you think God saw in Noah that made Noah find grace in the eyes of the Lord?

5. Compare and contrast the reason for the Flood given in the Bible . . . 

“God saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagined evil—evil, evil, evil from morning to night. God was sorry that he had made the human race in the first place; it broke his heart.” [The Message])

with the reason given in the movie . . . 

“At our hand, all He created is dying. . . . We must treat the world with mercy so that the Creator will show us mercy. . . . We must respect the ground. Respect the rivers and seas. Respect the other beasts of the Earth. Stop the slaughter, the rape, the carnage.”


6. Do you agree or disagree with the statement by Scott Foundas in Variety: “As for the supposed ‘liberties’ Aronofsky and co-screenwriter Ari Handel have taken with their sacrosanct source, they aren’t boldfaced transgressions so much as interpretations, additions and embellishments designed to flesh out the spare Noah narrative to feature length.”  

7. How did God talk to Noah? How does God talk to you? Was Noah sure about what God told him to do?

8. Were the Watchers (the giants with six arms) too weird for you? Why or why not?

9. Noah heard from God and obeyed God as best he could. He was chosen by God to build an ark. And yet Noah says, “the wickedness is not just in him (Tubal Cain); it’s in all of us. I saw it.” What does Noah mean by that? Is wickedness in all of us—even in those called by God?

10. Noah becomes obsessed with the idea that because all humans have wickedness in them, the world would be better off without any humans. That’s why he doesn’t allow Ham to have a wife. Japheth (the youngest son) is to be the last human. Naameh challenges Noah: “Our children . . . shall raise their children right. A world full of good men. Surely that’s what the Creator wants.” To which Noah replies, “I don’t know. I don’t know what he asks.”
       Are we always sure what God is telling us? If we are always sure of what God is telling us, how do we deal with people who disagree with us? If we are not always sure of what God is telling us, how do we deal with that uncertainty?

11. What do you think Noah’s wife felt about his efforts to wipe out the human race? Why?

12. How did you picture the ark in your mind? Was it anything like what’s in the movie?

13. What do you think it would have been like to be on a huge boat with just your family and thousands of animals (even if they were hibernating) for a year?

14. Noah’s actions as a result of his obsession to end the human race alienates him from Ham, Shem, Ila, and even his wife, Naameh. Do you know anyone who has followed what they think God is telling them and alienates their own family as a result? Discuss.

15. Compare how Noah wrestled with sin with how David wrestled with his sin (See Psalm 51). Does God forgive us of our sin? Does God forgive people He has called to do a special task of their sin? Should we forgive such people when they sin – even if they hurt us?

16. One of the criticisms of the character of Noah in the movie is that he is too dark. Did you feel that he was too dark? Why?

17. The story line about Tubal Cain, the principle nemesis of Noah, making it onto the ark and eventually having a fight-to-the death with Noah is not in the Bible. It’s totally made up and added to the story. As far as you are concerned, does this add to the movie or detract from it?

18. Compare the scene in which Tubal Cain kills an animal and offers meat to Ham with the scene in Genesis 3 in which the serpent offers fruit to Eve in the Garden of Eden and with the scene in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in which the White Witch offers Turkish delight to Edmund.

19. Discuss the tension between Noah and Ham. And how it was resolved . . . or not.

20. Discuss the tension between Noah and Shem. And how it was resolved . . . or not.

21. Discuss the tension between Noah and Ila. And how it was resolved . . . or not.

22. Discuss the tension between Noah and Naameh. And how it was resolved . . . or not.

23. “God is a God of new beginnings.” Discuss how that statement applied to Noah and his family. Discuss how it applies to us.

24. Jesus mentioned Noah when talking about His return to the earth “on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” at “the end of the age.” Calling himself “the Son of Man,” Jesus says,

No one knows, however, when that day and hour will come. . . .  The coming of the Son of Man will be like what happened in the time of Noah. In the days before the flood people ate and drank, men and women married, up to the very day Noah went into the boat; yet they did not realize what was happening until the flood came and swept them all away. That is how it will be when the Son of Man comes. . . . Watch out, then, because you do not know what day your Lord will come. . . . You also must always be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you are not expecting him (Matthew 24:36-44, GNT).

What is Jesus talking about and why does he draw a parallel with “the time of Noah”? When is “the end of the age”?
[1] Noah’s Ark (1928) and its debt to DeMille, Peter T. Chattaway, June 11, 2007, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/filmchat/2007/06/noahs-ark-1928-and-its-debt-to-demille.html
[2] http://godawa.com/movieblog/darren-aronofskys-noah-environmentalist-wacko/